Up to 30,000 jobs ‘at risk’ due to budget cuts

Between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs could be lost as a result of measures in Tuesday's budget, the trade union-backed Nevin Institute has said.

Institute director Tom Healy said on average 8,000 jobs were lost for every €1 billion taken out of the economy.

He said there could still be employment growth next year but that it would not be as strong as if no financial adjustment had taken place.

"The net effect of taking €2.5 billion out of the Irish economy is significant."

No clarity
Dr Healy said there was a lack of clarity in the Government's budgetary documentation so it was difficult to know whether the true extent of the fiscal consolidation planned was €2.5 billion or higher.

“We are getting mixed messages. On the one hand we are being told it is really €3.1 billion, it is as good as €3.1 billion, but on the other hand it is being presented as only €2.5 billion which obviously would be better, in my view at least, than €3.1 billion,” he said.

“The difficulty here is to know what is new in terms of revenue and expenditure measures, what is being counted in the present year and what is being carried from previous years. It is very difficult and I have spoken to a number of economists in Dublin. We do not understand, many of us, what exactly is going on because the documentation issued yesterday is not sufficient to throw light on some of these questions.”

Dr Healy said high earners got off “relatively lightly” in the budget and said the continuation of the levy on private pension funds was unnecessary to raise revenue for investment.

Assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Sally Anne Kinahan said the Government had made the wrong choices in the budget. She described cuts to jobseeker benefits for young people as "extraordinarily harsh".

Alternatives
"Congress set out an alternative course, in our pre-budget submission. We showed how a smaller 'adjustment' of €2 billion was more likely to reach the deficit targets, while a package of new tax measures targeted at high earners would have made the cuts announced yesterday totally unnecessary." Ms Kinahan said. "For example, a wealth tax could have raised upwards of €150 million."